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Switching to Whole Milk

Need some help with this, my LO will be 1 on 1/26/13 and I'm ready to stop breastfeeding. Right now I am only breastfeeding when it's nap time and bed time. She has still been getting breast milk at daycare because I have expressed enough to keep it going. I quit pumping at work about a month ago too. What is the best way to go about switching her over and what will help dry up my milk? I appreciate it all the help!!

Re: Switching to Whole Milk

The best way to switch a baby to whole cow's milk is to have a baby who likes whole cow's milk- and not all of them do. Cow's milk is not as flavorful nor as sweet as human milk. Offer baby a sippy or bottle of cow's milk and see if she's interested in it. If she is, Yahtzee. Just give her the appropriate number of oz per day in a sippy/bottle. If she doesn't like it, just keep offering. She may eventually decide that she is willing to drink it. If not, you'll need to make up your child's "dairy" requirement in some other way. Whole milk dairy products like yogurt and cheese may do the trick.

Drying up your milk is usually a matter of simply not removing milk, or removing only as much as necessary to restore comfort. The longer your breasts go without being stimulated by the action of baby or pump, and the longer you go without removing milk, the more your body will reduce supply. You've already pump-weaned and you're nursing pretty minimally, so you'll probably be able to drop both nursing sessions at once, if you want to do that. (Ordinarily moms are advised to drop one session at a time, wait a few days, and only then drop another. That allows supply to decrease slowly and reduces the risk of plugged ducts, engorgement, and mastitis.) Now, you may continue to produce a very small amount of milk for weeks, months, or even years after you have completely weaned, but this is nothing to worry about.